Category: Corporate Finance

Today’s report that Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s company, along with 3G, will acquire Heinz, the venerable food products concern, reflects the acquisition criteria that Buffett has articulated for 20 years. Essays explaining and outlining those criteria have appeared in my book, The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, since its first publication in 1997. Some excerpts follow (as they will appear on pages 211-214 of the forthcoming third edition):

We believe most deals do damage to the shareholders of the acquiring company. Too often, the words from HMS Pinafore apply: “Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream.” Specifically, sellers and their representatives invariably present financial projections having more entertainment value than educational value. In the production of rosy scenarios, Wall Street can hold its own against Washington.

In any case, why potential buyers even look at projections prepared by sellers baffles me. We never give them a glance, but instead keep in mind the story of the man with an ailing horse. Visiting the vet, he said: “Can you help me? Sometimes my horse walks just fine and sometimes he limps.” The vet’s reply was pointed: “No problem—when he’s walking fine, sell him.” In the world of mergers and acquisitions, that horse would be peddled as Secretariat.

At Berkshire, we have all the difficulties in perceiving the future that other acquisition-minded companies do. Like [them] also, we face the inherent problem that the seller of a business practically always knows far more about it than the buyer and also picks the time of sale—a time when the business is likely to be walking “just fine.” Read More